


The Worst Roommate

by dumbhotbitchknightgwaine



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, CenWaine, Cendred - Freeform, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Gwaine - Freeform, M/M, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:41:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 12,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23631040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumbhotbitchknightgwaine/pseuds/dumbhotbitchknightgwaine
Summary: Gwaine is a successful hairstylist, and since he's been running his new youtube channel, business has never been better. But when his friends from the record store across the road need to open a new store in a different city, Gwaine is coerced into putting up their store assistant, Cendred, in his spare room.
Relationships: Gwaine/Cendred
Comments: 24
Kudos: 10





	1. A Favour

**Author's Note:**

> Modern AU where Gwaine is head of a salon opposite Morgana and Morgause's record store.
> 
> Concept credited between me (dumbhotbitchknightgwaine) and @jgvfhl on Tumblr!

With a gap between appointments, Gwaine dashed across the road and poked his head into the record store, ‘Morgana, you in?’

A huge pile of posters began walking towards him, ‘Behind here!’

Gwaine laughed and grabbed a pile from her, ‘Let me help you. You know, you can take two trips?’

‘Two trips are for the weak,’ Morgana scoffed and began arranging them in the display, ‘How’s the salon today?’

Gwaine flipped his hair out of his face, ‘Been great yeah. Managed to get another video done for my channel; you were right, Morgana, since I started the channel the customers have been flocking in.’ out the corner of his eye, Gwaine saw her assistant, Cendred, approaching, ‘Urgh.’

‘S’alright if I go on my cigarette break Morgs?’

‘Sure thing.’

‘Cheers,’ Cenred slipped past, but not before whacking Gwaine on the shoulder, ‘Alright pal?’ and with that, he was out in the sun puffing away.

Gwaine couldn’t help but roll his eyes, ‘How do you put up with that dick?’

‘He’s good at his job Gwaine.’ Morgana bit her lip, ‘Look. I actually need to ask you for a favour. Morgause found this great plot down in London for us to open up the second shop and I need to go down there to get it up and running. The thing is, our lease runs out while I’m away and Cenred has been crashing in our spare room…’

‘Oh God, Morgana, no, I love you but you can’t be serious.’

Morgana grabbed him by the shoulders, ‘Please Gwaine! It would just be for a short while. Like, a month maybe…’

‘A month!’

She took him by the arm and pulled him away from the door, having spied Cenred laughing at them both, ‘I’m promoting him to manager so he can run the store. If he doesn’t have somewhere to stay then we’re going to lose a shit tone of money and…’  
Gwaine gave a defeated sigh, ‘Of course. Of course, he can stay.’ Morgana beamed at him, ‘But you owe me, big time.’

Cendred some back in and slid behind the till, raising his eyebrows at Morgana questioningly. She gave a thumbs up.

‘Right, I best get back the salon. Um, if you wanna bring your stuff up to the flat tonight Cendred, I finish about seven.’

‘I’ll take it up now.’ Cendred slung a satchel on his back and made his way to Gwaines flat above the record store, ‘Keys?’ with bitter reluctance, Gwaine chucked his keys as Cenred made his way up, ‘See you later roommate.’

Morgana stifled a laugh as Gwaine shook his head.

‘I’m going to kill you, ‘ Gwaine mouthed.


	2. Close Quarters

As Gwaine locked up the salon he could hear music blaring across the street. Who the hell was playing Black Sabbath at max volume in the middle of the...Oh no. Gwaine turned to see the windows of his flat open, Cenrdred sipping on a beer and banging his head...with his shirt off...in Gwaine’s room. He’d set up in Gwaine’s bloody room!

Gwaine marched across the street up to his flat and banged on the door relentlessly until Cendred opened up, ‘Hey man!’

‘You’re in my room. The spare is at the back.’ Gwaine had to squeeze past, desperately trying not to brush his hand over Cendred bare chest, ‘Put a shirt on, Jesus.’

He flopped down on the sofa and grabbed himself a beer. He’d been trying to cut down, but seeing Cendred invading his flat made Gwaine reach for his stash of cigarettes underneath the table, pulling out an ashtray with it. The rush of nicotine hit him and steadied his nerves hearing Cendred shuffle his things from one room to the other.

Cendred sauntered in, doing a sarcastic twirl, ‘Okay, shirt on, stuff in the spare room. All better?’

‘It would be if you weren’t wearing my shirt.’

Cendred pulled on the fabric, ‘No, this is my Led Zepplin shirt.’  
Gwaine got up with a huff, puffing the smoke out the side of his mouth, ‘No it’s mine because…’ he folded back the collar to reveal a trail of stains, ‘Bleach stains from doing Morgause’s roots last week.’

He looked Gwaine up and down before plucking the cigarette from his mouth, ‘Didn’t know you smoked.’ he took a long drag, blowing smoke in his face, before carefully placing it back in Gwaine’s mouth, ‘Right, I’m off to the pub. Leave the door on the latch will you, Princess?’

He’d been living with Cendred for five minutes and Gwaine was already exhausted.


	3. We Know You Too Well

It was Wednesday afternoon, which meant it was time to film for Gwaine’s youtube channel. He had to hand it to Morgana and Morgause; since he’d started posting videos the salon was doing brilliantly. Five-thousand people had hit subscribe already and he had appointments booked solid for the next three months.

He sat down at his desk and adjusted the lighting rig, all the products were lined up neatly, he’d straightened out the picture frame behind him, and clicked record.

‘Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel! Before I begin, thank you all so much for your support and please, please, please, hit subscribe to get all the latest updates and videos from Hot Hair Tips with me, Gwaine! Now, today we are going to be looking at eco-friendly haircare brands as part of my new series of videos starting with, my favourite, conditioners! So, let’s kick this thing off with…’

Thunk.

The table shook as Cenred barged into it, ‘Sorry Gwaine, my bad.’ He strode past, chucking up all the mess from the floor to try and find a shirt to put on.

Gwaine clenched his teeth, ‘Cenred, I’m doing a live video right now.’

‘Ahh cool.’ he sniffed a shirt, ‘Seems clean.’

‘Can you get out of shot, please?’

‘What? It’s not like anyone’s watching.’ Cenred swept the dark locks of hair away from his face as he peered onto the screen, ‘Oh shit, there are thousands of the buggers.’ he snatched an apple from the table and left as casually as he’d arrived.

Gwaine turned back to the camera with an exasperated sigh, ‘Sorry about that everyone. Where was I...Right, we’re going to start with this new product that I’ve recently introduced to the salon…’

The rest of the video went without a hitch and Gwaine kicked back for the afternoon, cracking open a beer while his assistant manager took care of the appointments for the day. His phone pinged again and scrolled through the comments; the smile quickly went from this face.

_Love your videos! Who is that guy in your flat? He’s HOT!_

_Holy hell, Gwaine has a boyfriend!_

_Congratulations boys!_

_WOWZA that dude in the background can GET IT! Good on you Gwaine!_

Then, Gwaine saw it, the comment that broke him:

_Damn, the dude in the background has even better hair than Gwaine._

Gwaine dropped his phone, ‘Better hair than...me?’ at that moment, his phone rang; ‘Morgana have you seen this shit on my video?’

On the other end of the line was just a cackle of laughter, ‘I...I...Oh my god, this is brilliant. He has better hair than you!’

‘No, he bloody doesn’t. Stop laughing, Morgana!’

‘That’s Morgause! So, It’s going well then, you being roommates?’

Gwaine fell down on the sofa, rubbing his eyes in frustration, ‘He’s messy, he steals my beer, he smokes forty a day, and that alarm on his motorbike goes off one more sodding time, I’m going to snap.’

‘Hang on, Gwaine,’ Morgause came on the line, ‘You’re forgetting that we know you too well. You’ve basically just described _every_ guy you’ve _ever_ had a crush on.’

‘You do a weakness for guys with motorbikes.’ Morgana interjected.

‘And metalheads; you like all the same bands.’

Gwaine was silent for a moment, ‘I’m hanging up now. You’re both dead to me.’

‘No! Gwaine we love you! No!’ the pair laughed on the other end before Gwaine ended the call.


	4. C

The next day, after getting no sleep from Cendred’s music all night, Gwaine arrived at work bleary-eyed and yawning.

‘Late night was it?’ chirped up Leon with a smirk.

Gwaine fell into his chair, ‘Oh, don’t you start.’

Grabbing two coffees from the counter, Leon sat down in front of Gwaine. He was going to make the most of the half-hour before opening for his interrogation, ‘So, since when have you and Cendred been, you know?’

He took a sip of the boiling hot coffee and winced, ‘Nothing is going on. I’m putting him up at my place while Morgana is away. As if I’d let that guy anywhere near me.’

‘Well,’ Leon swivelled in his chair, ‘He is your type.’

‘Why do people keep saying this?’

‘Because it’s true?’ Leon leant back, ‘I’m only teasing. Anyway, the video did really well! Got five more bookings after you finished. Oh, but that does remind me, I had to reschedule your Saturday at noon as she couldn’t make it, but, I had an idea!’

‘Go on.’ Gwaine reached into his pocket to retrieve his cigarettes having spied Cendred opening up across the street. Just the sight of his at this point had Gwaine jittering for the nicotine.

‘Why don’t you offer the appointment to one of the followers on your youtube; you could film the whole thing and then people can actually get to see inside the salon.’

Gwaine nodded, ‘Not a bad idea. I’ll post after I’ve popped out.’

‘You back on the cigs?’

He rolled his eyes, ‘Leon, if you had to put up with Cendred, you’d be smoking too.’

The record store was always quiet in the early morning, meaning Cendred could work the new stock and pop out for as many cigarette breaks as he wanted. He spied Gwaine across the street, holding his phone up and talking. He grabbed his out of his pocket and clicked on to Gwaine’s Instagram; he was live.

‘Hi, guys! So, we’ve had a cancellation this Saturday at the salon and I want to offer one of my followers that chance to come and get their hair done, completely free of charge, and you get to feature on my channel! So, I’ve put a link below and the first person to click will be...Oh! Someone has already beaten you all to it! Well, I’ll see you on Saturday...You’ve just put C as your name. Ha, well, look forward to meeting you C! I’ll message you with the details.’

The Livestream ended and Gwaine strolled back in, pleased with himself that his followers were so eager to come to the salon. In the record store, Cendred, now known to the world as simply C, nearly fell off his chair laughing.


	5. Where have you been hiding him?

‘Hey everyone and welcome to my first live video from my salon! We’re just waiting for C to arrive, still don’t know their name, but they have let us know they want a full cut and colour so my boy Elyan here is going to be helping me out with colouring as he is the expert.’ Gwaine turned to a waving Elyan, ‘Have I had you on the channel before?’

‘Yeah, do you remember when we did those wig customisations?’

‘Oh yeah, man yours was amazing. Honestly, Elyan is a wizard when it comes to balayage!’ out the corner of his eye, Gwaine saw Cenred walk into the store. This was the last thing he needed, ‘Right, just got to go and deal with something. Elayn do you want to talk people through the colour prep?’ 

‘Hey, roomie!’ Cendred boomed, clearly trying to make himself loud enough to be heard by the microphone, ‘I’m ready for my close up!’

Gwaine grabbed him by the shoulder, ‘Cendred, I’m doing a live video can you please just go. You can drink whatever beer you want, just _leave_ please?’

‘Oh but Gwaine,’ Cendred strolled in front of the camera, ‘I’m _C_. I saw you live streaming from the shop and now I want my cut and colour. Shall I sit here?’ He took his seat and turned to Elyan, ‘Hi, you must be Elyan! My friend gets his hair done by you. You know Merlin?’

‘Oh my god, I love Merlin! I didn’t know you were friends! Wait, don’t you work at the record store?’

‘Yeah,’ Cendred turned to Gwaine with a wink, ‘And I’m Gwaine’s new roommate.’

Elyan feigned shock, ‘Gwaine! Where have you been hiding him away?’

‘He’s staying while Morgana’s out of town; It’s temporary.’ Gwaine gritted his teeth. A full cut and colour meant Cendred was going to in that chair, in his salon, on his channel, for at least two hours. He put on his best fake smile, ‘Right, Cendred, what are we going to do today?’ Gwaine steeled himself. The man was going to ask for something ridiculous. He didn’t even know how to properly condition so how the hell would he know what he wanted.

‘Right.’ Cendred leaned back in his chair with ease, ‘I want to keep the length but I think it’s bulky and could do with layers. Not too short though, because I want to keep the waves bouncy without being too choppy. Get rid of the dead ends, maybe half an inch so it sits on my shoulders? In terms of colour, I saw you used that blue-black dye on one one of your customers last week and it’s so nice. Could probably do with some razoring at the front for framing. Sound good?’

Gwaine’s jaw dropped.

‘What?’ Cendred smirked, ‘You know I watch your channel, right?’

Leon emerged from behind the counter, ‘I hear wedding bells.’ he whispered to Elyan.

‘Well, let’s get started then.’ said Gwaine. This was going to be hell.


	6. The Gym

_Okay, that video was ADORABLE, you guys are SO CUTE!_

_Gwaine and Cendred FIVE-EVER_

_As if this channel couldn’t get any better now there’s boyfriend banter I am LIVING for this!_

_Urgh that Cendred is so hot with the blue-black dye, nice job Elyan! And nice catch Gwaine haha_

Gwaine turned off his phone and chucked it down the other end of the couch. He couldn’t believe Cendred managed to pull that one off and get on his channel. I mean, the viewing figures were through the room but all anyone was talking about was Cendred. He did have to admit to himself that the new hair cut and colour looked great, really great actually, but he couldn’t fathom the thought of people thinking that Cendred was his _boyfriend_. Needing to clear his head, Gwaine grabbed him gym bag and shoes and made his way for the door.

‘Where you off to?’

He turned around to find Cendred leaning in the doorway sipping on yet another one of his beers.

‘Though I’d pop to the gym. See you later.’

‘Wait!’ Cendred sat down his beers and stuffed his keys into his pocket, ‘I’ll come with you.’

Oh god, thought Gwaine, ‘You don’t have to. I tend to just listen to music the whole time.’

‘Well, now we can get to know each other instead!’ and Cendred pushed past him out the door. 

There went Gwaine’s chance to vent to Percival.

The gym was just down the street from the salon but Cendred managed to chain smoke three cigarettes in the short journey, babbling on about a rumoured Rage Against the Machine your Gwaine gave out the odd grunt of agreement. After what felt like an eternity, they arrived and Gwaine rushed off ahead to greet his friend, ‘Percy! How are you, man?’

Percival gave Gwaine a warm hug, ‘Not too bad.’ he leaned in for a whisper, ‘Looks like you can’t shake him off.’

‘Urgh, you have no idea.’

Percival stroked Gwaines face, ‘You poor baby.’

‘Oh shut up,’ Gwaine playfully batted his hands away, ‘Cendred this is Percival. Percival, Cendred.’

He extended his hand to Cendred, ‘Please, just call me Percy. Nice to meet you.’

Cendred swallowed hard, ‘You too.’ his took in the easy way Percival still had his arm around Gwaine, ‘So...Are you like, Gwaine’s boyfriend or…’

‘Many years ago.’ Gwaine smiled up at him.

‘Yeah, I was too good for him though.’

Gwaine elbowed him in the ribs, ‘Shut up!

‘Oh...right,’ Gwaine couldn’t understand why Cendred was smiling so hard, ‘Cool, so friends, cool.’

Gwaine cocked his head, ‘Yeah...anyway. I’m gonna get started on the weights, see you in a bit Perce.’

‘Not jealous, are you?’ Percival smiled to himself having spied Cendred watching Gwaine walking away.

Cendred turned with a start, his cheeks blooming bright red ‘What?’

‘So. Come one. How Long?’ Percival stood shoulder to shoulder with the man, ‘Gwaine is great but he is the most _oblivious _guy I’ve ever met when it comes to people liking him. Took him a year to realised I liked him back in the day.’__

__‘Shit, is it that obvious?’ Cendred panicked._ _

__Percy threw his head back laughing, ‘To me, yeah. To Gwaine, no. Oh and, um, every at the salon has noticed too… We have a group chat.’_ _

__With a sigh, Cendred kicked his heels into the floor, ‘Not like I got a shot anyway, I guess. I mean, if he liked _you_ then what am I thinking? I’m skinny as a rake.’_ _

__Percival rubbed his eyes, ‘Remember, I’m his ex. He isn’t looking for a bodybuilder. I can tell you right now if he likes you.’_ _

__‘Really?’_ _

__‘Right,’ Percy clasped his hands together, ‘You like metal music, I can tell by the shirt. That’s tick number one. Now, by any chance do you smoke? It’s a dirty habit but Gwaine has a hell of a weakness for it.’ Cendred nodded, ‘Okay, I think it’s too much to ask if you have a motorcycle but do you at least have a leather biker jacket?’_ _

__‘I have a Harley and three leather jackets.’_ _

__Percival shook his head in disbelief, ‘Cendred, he fancies you, the dick just hasn’t figured it out yet. I’ll consult the group chat.’_ _

__Percival began walking away when Cendred called back to him, ‘What’s this group chat about anyway?’_ _

__‘It’s the _help Gwaine get laid because he’s a useless hoe_ chat and, if I get the thumbs up from the others, we’ll help you out.’ Percival sniggered, ‘You like pub quizzes?’_ _

__‘Love them.’_ _

__‘That’s a start. I’ll be in touch.’_ _

__Cendred stole a glimpse over the Gwaine as he wiped the sweat from his brow on the running machine. Maybe he actually did stand a chance and all those months staring out the record store window at Gwaine on his break hadn’t been for nothing._ _


	7. Group Chat

Percy: So, I just met Cendred

Leon: And???

Percy: You guys were totally right, he’s Gwaine’s type down to a T

Elyan: Cendred totally likes him as well, you saw the video he was in?

Leon: The flirting was unbearable

Percy: Yeah, Cendred admitted it to me

Elyan: WHATT?? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??

Percy: Hahaha! He followed Gwaine down to my gym; you should’ve seen his face when he thought I was still Gwaine’s bf

Leon: Ngl, Perce, I still find it so weird you guys went out your total opposites

Percy: You find it weird that anyone dates, Leon

Leon: Well, forgive me if my ace ass doesn’t get the hype

Elyan: WHAT DID CENDRED SAY?

Percy: ‘Am I that obvious?’ LOL

Elyan: Not to Gwaine, the bugger’s hopeless

Arthur: Wait, what’s going on?

Leon: Oh look who’s crawling back into the group chat!

Arthur: I’ve been working!!!! Who the hell is Cendred?

Elyan: Watch Gwaine’s latest video NOW!

Arthur: K

Percy: So, we gonna help this guy out or not?

Elyan: YES! Honestly, when I was doing his colour on Saturday he is soooo nice, they would be perf together.

Leon: I’m in

Percy: Of course you’re in Leon, you love a good meddle

Leon: Oi!

Percy: Where the hell is Lance? 

Elyan: With Gwen.

Leon: You still salty about that, El?

Elyan: He’s my friend and she’s my sister, I’m allowed to feel weird about it

Percy: HA! You know they’ve been seeing each other since Christmas, right? ;)

Arthur: Holy crap I just watched the video JESUS

Percy: RIGHT?!

Elyan: What the hell do you mean they’ve been seeing each other since Xmas????

Leon: They got it off in the spare room at Gwaine’s idiot, why do you think the door was wedged shut. ANYWAY I’m in, get Cendred in the group chat

Arthur: Why am I not here for this drama?!

Leon: Becoz Merlin wouldn’t let you drool over another dark-haired fit guy

Merlin: Tru

Leon: HE SPEAKS

Merlin: We moved cities, Leon, we’re not dead

Leon: When you coming back, anyway?

Merlin: Couple of weeks, when’s the pub quiz?

Percy: Right, I’m going to add Cendred, ready guys?

Elyan: 14th! Guest round on music

Merlin: Ahh I’m shit a music

Arthur: But you’re good at getting drunk and making a tit of yourself ;)

Leon: Pleeeeasee keep it to the bedroom ladies

_Cendred has been added to ‘get gwaine laid_

Cendred: Oh wow, I thought you were joking about the group chat

Elyan: It’s no joke; Gwaine is a fucking useless 

Leon: SECONDED!

Percy: Right, guys, we need a plan!

Percy: Also, I can see you on the CCTV Cendred and it’s super obvious you’re looking at Gwaine’s arse

Cendred: Shit.


	8. All Systems Go

‘Right, I need to go do the paperwork. You alright to watch the shop, El? Gwaine said as he bundled up the receipts.

Just as he turned to leave, Percival ducked in through the door, ‘Don’t suppose you can squeeze me in?’ 

‘Sure thing. Wondered when you’d let me sort at that mess!’ reaching up to ruffle his hair, Gwaine went to grab his sheers from the back.

Percival leaned back to Elyan, ‘All systems go.’

‘Aye aye Captain,’ Elyan gave a mock salute and sat down next to Percy.

Cendred had been living with Gwaine for a few weeks, but luckily things had calmed down. Cendred seemed to be a lot tidier, and Gwaine was thankful he was out most evenings, although he didn’t have the faintest idea where he went. If he was honest with himself, it wasn’t actually that bad. If fact, it was quite funny watching Cendred trying to keep the place tidy, especially when he brought that pair of marigolds for doing the washing up.

‘I meant to say, Gwaine,’ Percival chirped up bringing Gwaine back to the present, ‘Thanks for bringing Cendred to the gym. He’s been back every day since.’

He raised his eyebrows, ‘Oh, really now?’

Elyan had to swivel around away from Percy’s gaze to stifle a laugh.

‘He has yeah. Even got him on a personal training programme. Great for business!’ Of course, this was a lie. He was training Cendred completely for free. 

It was Leon’s idea. As much as Gwaine tried to pretend he wasn’t fussed about muscles on a guy, it was no coincidence he went to Percivals gym each week at the exact time the weight training class was being run. Not to participate, just to grab the running machine right next to the studio. After six months of doing this, he still thought no one had noticed.

‘Well, that at least explains where he’s been going every night.’

‘You been missing him, have you?’ Elyan teased, only to find Percival shooting him daggers, _Be subtle_!

‘Oh shut up Elyan.’ Gwaine began shaving Percy’s head, absent minded to what he was saying, ‘I mean, Cendred’s not that bad, I guess. He’s quite a laugh and…’ he caught himself when Percival began laughing.

‘You’ve changed your tune, G!’ he crossed his arm, ‘Guess you won’t that I’ve invited him to the pub quiz tonight then?’

Gwaine dropped his jaw, ‘For fu…’

‘Hey! Guest round is _music and he is obsessed; he could even give Morgana a run for her money!’ Elyan slapped him on the shoulder, ‘Plus,’ he winked at Percival before he turned the screw, ‘I bet he could drink you under the table.’_

_‘I can out drink you all!’_

_‘Well, guess we’ll just have to find out G. See you tonight...lightweight.’_


	9. Update

Merlin: We’re on the motorway now, should be with you about seven guys

Arthur: More importantly, how did today go???

Percy: Cendred, you have a shot

Elyan: He admitted he actually doesn't mind living with you now!!

Merlin: Oh holy hell that’s huge

Cendred: Well, that’s hardly good, is it?

Cendred: He tolerates me. Great.

Cendred: URGHHH I DON’T STAND A CHANCE

Arthur: Oh, you poor boy, you don’t speak Gwaine yet, do you?

Leon: Gwaine said he tolerates you Cen? Mate

Leon: MATE

Leon: DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS

Cendred: No!

Leon: It means he DTF BOOOIIIIII

Elyan: You are a poet aren’t you, Leon?

Leon: Wordsworth aint got shit on me

Percy: So, for the quiz tonight: time to impart your wisdom gentleman

Merlin: Wear a biker jacket

Elyan: Use oil spray in your hair coz it’ll bring out the new colour and he’ll be impressed you know what it is

Elyan: I have some in my bag just incase so let me know when you get to the pub and I’ll nip out

Leon: Guys, you’re missing the major MAJOR THING here.

Leon: Cendred, when you arrive, offer to buy him a drink. He WILL refuse, but insist and DON’T ask him what he wants. Get him a gin and lemonade with a garnish on the side- he will act like he hates it but it’s his favourite drink in the world and most importantly…

Percy: Gin? You know how pissed Gwaine gets on gin!!

Leon: I also know how honest he gets on gin

Merlin: ooooo good point, Gwaine spills all the gossip when he’s had a few of those

Cendred: Right: jacket, hair oil, gin...anything else??

Percy: Come down the gym and we’ll go together, you’re all set

Arthur: YOU’RE IDIOTS ALL OF YOU

Arthur: Cendred, mate, I haven’t met you before, but the MOST IMPORTANT THING is Gwaine is competitive as hell

Elyan: Omg...omg...the quick fire round!!!

Arthur: If you win the quiz for the team, he will be putty in your hands

Leon: Yeah so no pressure then Cendred

Cendred: It's fine, it's not like I'm sat in the flat hyperventilating, nope not me


	10. The Quiz

Gwaine got to the pub with Elyan and grabbed their usual round table at the back, hoping to grab a catch up with Merlin and Arthur when they arrived.

‘What you drinking, El?’

‘Get us vodka and...Oh my god! Merlin!’ Elyan nearly leapt off the bar and into Merlin’s arms as the pair walked in. Arthur scooted past to Gwaine.

‘Alright, Princess?’ Gwaine chuckled as he ordered another beer for Arthur, ‘How’s married life then?’

Arthur fondly looked over his shoulder to Merlin and Elyan catching up, ‘Not going to lie Gwaine… It’s bliss.’

‘You sap.’

‘You’re the one who was crying like a baby the whole ceremony!’ Arthur took a long sip of his beer, ‘I miss it here, don’t get me wrong, but Merlin is doing really well at his new job.’

Gwaine couldn’t help himself, ‘Still twice a night?’

‘Gwaine!’ Arthur went bright red, ‘What do you...how do you...Yes, the fucker is insatiable.’

He put his beer down as Merlin came forward, arms open, ‘Merlin! How are you, old friend?’

‘Who cares about that, how are you? New roommate I hear.’

Gwaine reached in his pocket and pulled out his cigarettes, ‘And that, dear Merlin, is why I’m back on the baccy.’ and with that, he slipped out the front.

Before Arthur could sneak a kiss from Merlin, Elyan burst in between them, ‘Where’s Gwaine going?’

‘He’s having a smoke out front, why does it…’

‘No! You fools! Hold the table!’ 

Elyan ran outside to see Gwaine stood around the corner, to his left Percival and Cendred on their way in, deep in conversation. Gwaine started turning around. He couldn’t see Percy and Cendred conspiring, it would ruin the whole plan! Without hesitation, he reached into his coat and full-on lobbed the hair oil down the street, bouncing off Percy’s head before Cendred caught it. He mimed a spray motion and pointed to Gwaine around the corner, the two men quickly getting the hint and running in. With a sigh of relief, Elyan went and grabbed Gwaine, ‘Come on, Arthur will have necked your beer if you’re out here any longer.’

As Gwaine got back to the table, he saw there was only one seat left next to… Oh god. Cendred turned around with an easy smile, his hair shiny with a hint of blue in the dim pub lights, leather jacket scuffed over his broad shoulders, ‘Drink, Gwaine?’

‘It’s alright, I’ve got…’

‘I insist.’ as Cendred got up he pulled out a chair for Gwaine, who stared at him awkwardly before sitting down, looking perplexed at his friends. Behind him, Cendred gave a cautious thumbs-up to which Percy gently nodded; the boy was doing _excellently_.

…

By the time the break in the quiz was called an hour later, Gwaine was on his third gin and slurring slighting, ‘I told, you fucking told you it Puerto Rico but did you lot listen? No! We should’ve have won that round,’ he rolled his head to Cendred, ‘They’re shitting useless. You knew it was Puerto Rico, didn’t you?’ Cendred gave a shy nod, ‘See? At least someone gets it. Drink?’

‘Yeah, I’ll get it.’

‘You’ve brought all my drinks tonight! Let me get a round in.’

‘You can get the next ones in if you’re still standing later.’

Percival got up, ‘I’ll come with you.’ when he’d got Cendred out of earshot at the bar, he leaned in, ‘Now’s when we find out what’s what.’

‘Same again, please. What do you mean?’

‘Drunk Gwaine has no filter. And he’s about to spill everything. Elyan said he’ll text a smiley face to the group chat if it’s a thumbs up.’

Back at the table, Gwaine slumped his head in his hands, a silly smile beaming on his face.

Merlin squared his shoulders, ‘So, Gwaine. Cendred seems nice?’

‘Yeah I guess so.’ downed the rest of his gin, early looking for the next one.

Leon took a deep breath, he’d watched this dancing around feelings routine when he lived with Arthur and Merlin and he wasn’t to watch another three years of endless flirting ensue, ‘Gwaine! Quickfire round! Do you like him?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Do think he’s hot?’

‘Well, yeah.’

‘And for one million pounds; would you tap that?’

‘Who wouldn’t? Damn, he’s gorge...He’s...Objectively he’s… you’ve laid some kind of trap!’

The table erupted in laughter as Percy and Cendred came back. Grabbing the cigarettes from his pocket, Cendred made his way to the door when he felt someone grab his arm, ‘The quiz is about to start up again, you can't go out now! We need to win this thing!’ Gwaine’s face went very serious, ‘If we win this round, we get chicken wings.’

The announcer tapped on the microphone, ‘Right, everyone back in their seats. Okay, so we are going to do our guest round on music history a little differently as we have two teams neck and neck for first place. So, can one team member please be nominated from ‘The Knights’ and ‘Camelot Massive’ and come up to the front.’

Gwaine threw his head back, ‘No! We don’t have Morgana!’

Elyan grinned, ‘But we do have our secret weapon. You’re up, Cendred.’

‘We need to win, you can’t fuck this up,’ Gwaine was already on the edge of his seat.

‘I’ll win you the chicken wings pal, calm down.’ and with that Cendred was at the front, finger on the buzzer.

The quiz master began, ‘Which rock group launched the careers of guitarists Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton…’

‘The Yardbirds.’ Cendred answered in a snap. He risked it and flashed a wink at Gwaine.

‘Ten is the 1991 debut…’

Cendred rolled his eyes, ‘Pearl Jam.’ this was too easy.

The host rattled off the questions, Cendred buzzing in and getting every single one right to the cheer of the team.

‘Final question: What are the two Nicknames Ozzy Osbourne’s also known as?’

‘Prince of darkness and The Godfather of Heavy Metal.’

Cendred swaggered back to the table victorious, everyone banging their hands down on the table, Leon even letting out a whoop-woop. He bowed his head and presented Gwaine with the token for chicken wings, ‘Told ya.’ with a wink, he pulled out a cigarette and strolled outside to the beer garden.

Everyone else was inside, which Cendred was glad of. It gave him a few moments to slide down the wall in exhaustion. Who knew flirting could be so stressful?

His phone pinged and, there on the group chat, Elyan had posted.

':)'

Cendred smiled to himself. At least the stress had been worth it.


	11. The Long Walk Home

The bell rang at the bar for last orders just as Gwaine was wiping the last of the hot sauce from his chin. Cendred managed to grab one chicken wing before they were devoured, but Gwaine was a hungry drunk, as none of the others batted an eyelid as he wolfed it down.

'Right. Let's be going lads.' said Elyan getting up, 'You booked the taxis, Arthur?'

'Yeah, they'll be here in a min. Thanks for letting us stay, mate.' everyone got up as Arthur patted Cendred on the shoulder, 'Nice to meet you Cendred, and best of luck walking Gwaine home like that.'

Cendred looked worriedly at Gwaine who, having downed his ninth gin, was now taking a snakey sip of his roommate's beer, 'Are we not getting in the taxi with you.'

'It's a rite of passage!' Merlin chirped as he took his husband's hand, 'Walking Gwaine home drunk is something you have to do to prove yourself. It's a challenge.'

'I'm not drunk!' Gwaine slurred as he flicked the hair, a giant grin appearing on his face as he stumbled to his feet.

Halfway down the road, Gwaine smacked into a lamppost. He staggered back suddenly to be caught in Cendred's arms, 'You alright there buddy?'

'Never been better.' he slung a hand around Cendred's waist for balance, pulling their bodies together as they wandered home, 'You know, Cen. I don't think you're that bad actually.'

'Wow. What a compliment.'

'No, no, no, no, no. No. I mean it. You're nice. You have nice hair; it's all shiny.' he reached out his spare hand to stroke it. But it didn't feel drunk to Cendred, as Gwaines' fingers delicately brushed through, his eyes drooping down to Cendred's lips, 'You're… rather handsome really.'

Cendred sighed, ‘And I think you’re rather drunk, Gwaine. Come on, we’re not far now.’

Gwaine pulled away with a mocking pout, lurching to lean on the nearby shopfront, ‘I just called you handsome. Don’t you think I’m handsome? Pay me compliments. _*hic* _’ he threw his head back in a laugh.__

__Biting his lip, Cendred was hesitant. On the one hand, Gwaine was probably too drunk to remember any of this conversation; on the other, was it worth the risk?_ _

__‘I think…You are perhaps the most handsome man I’ve ever met, Gwaine.’ hearing this, Gwaine’s face dropped in confusion, ‘I thought that the first time you came into the record store and I think it now.’_ _

__Gwaine stood against the wall dumbfounded, his eyes questioning if Cendred was being sarcastic or genuine, but before he could respond, he was taken by the arm and pulled down the street._ _

__‘Come on. Pretty sure there’s leftover pizza back home.’_ _

__‘Oh fuck, I love pizza!’ Gwaine slurred, his attention seemingly diverted until Cendred felt Gwaine’s hand softly slip into his own._ _

__They got to their street when Gwaine started talking again; his feverish ramblings had dropped off, ‘You know. It’s been so damn long.’_ _

__‘Since what?’_ _

__‘Since I got laid.’_ _

__Cendred nearly choked._ _

__Gwaine huffed out a sigh, ‘Just remembered the last time I got walked home was over a year ago and…’_ _

__‘It’s been a year? What? How?’ Cendred caught the tone in his voice and calmed himself, ‘I just mean… you know… It’s surprising someone like yourself hasn’t been… in so long…’ it took all of his concentration to not imagine how ravenous Gwaine would be in bed._ _

__‘Ahh. I’m just not really a one-night-stand guy. Nothing against it, just not for me. Also, like...I’m picky. It’s my downfall.’ he fumbled for the keys in his coat pocket, ‘Goddamn it, where are they?’_ _

__‘Here, I’ll do it.’ Cendred gently pushed past and began unlocking the door, his breath quickening a little bit as he brought himself to ask, ‘So, what are you looking for?’_ _

__‘Pizza!’_ _

__‘I meant in a partner, you plonker.’ God, Gwaine was an adorable drunk._ _

__Gwaine slipped past and fell onto the sofa, not waiting a second before shoving the cold pizza into his mouth straight from the box, ‘Urgh. I dunno. Funny, kind, all that bullshit. Preferably looks good in skinny jeans.’ he held both his hands, ‘Thicc.’_ _

__Cendred stood staring, hands pushed down into the pockets of his own skinny jeans, ‘Anything else?’_ _

__‘Same music, long hair, a bit rough and ready. You, you know the type.’_ _

__‘Yeah, I think I do.’ Cendred smirked to himself, ‘You look wasted, I’m getting you some tea.’_ _

__By the time he came back in, Gwaine was snoring with half a pizza crust having fallen onto his chest. Setting down the tea, Cendred awkwardly lifted Gwaine up and carried him to his bedroom; those visits to the gym really had been paying off. He lay him down and pulled the blankets over him before returning to drink the tea himself, but not before he took one last, longing look and Gwaine sleeping peacefully._ _


	12. Breaking Point

Elyan: You up Cendred?

Cendred: Yeah. Why?

Elyan: I have a gift for you haha

Merlin: Oh my god, is this the video??

Cendred: What video?

Arthur: Man, he was wastedddd

Leon: GUYS

Leon: FFS first things first

Leon: Did you survive walking Gwaine home? He’s a nightmare when he’s drunk

Cendred: Ha yeah. He was pretty cute tbf

Elyan: DETAILS 

Percy: spill that tea 

Cendred: He said I was handsome, if that’s ‘tea’ im not sure what that means

Leon: TO YOUR FACE???

Leon: Guys this is fucking huge  
Arthur: Gwaine said that?? Mate, this is MASSIVE, Gwaine never admits stuff like that this early, he’s the worst for it

Merlin: Says the man who took two years to even ask me out :3

Arthur: Oh shush, I asked you to marry me didn’t I!

Elyan: You two are disgusting and I’m living for it as ever <3

Cendred: So, what was this video?

Leon: Okay right, after you won the quickfire round and went out, Gwaine was sloshed and filmed it

Elyan: _video attached_

Elyan: Enjoy, its a masterpiece

Cendred plugged in his headphones and clicked on the video. Gwaine was staring at the chicken wing voucher with a big shit-eating grin on his face while the others laughed.

_Leon: You filming?_

_Elyan: Yeah, go for it._

_Leon: Hey, Gwaine! You alright there buddy?_

_Gwaine: Cendred got me chicken wings._

_Leon: He won them for you!_

_Gwaine: Yeah he did. That was cute._

_Leon: So, do you like Cendred now?_

_Gwaine nodded and took another big swig of his gin._

_Leon: So, like, if Cendred, I dunno, wanted to kiss you…_

_Gwaine: Fuck yeah I’d snog him, have you fucking seen him, he’s fucking gorgeous!_

_Elyan: Whoa, Gwaine, calm down, ha!_

_Gwaine: No he’s fucking hot and urgh god he’s so...urgh_

Meanwhile, Gwaine has stirred awake to a killer hangover. His head thumped as he smacked his tongue against the dry inside of his mouth. A glass of water stood on the bed stand next to him. He didn’t remember putting it there but truth be told he didn’t remember much of anything from last night. Downing the water he shrugged off last night's clothes in favour of a shirt and joggers, shuffling into the kitchen to make a coffee strong enough to knock him back into reality. As he waited for the kettle to boil, he heard a peal of faint laughter coming from the living room. Around the corner, he saw Cendred lay out on the sofa in his pyjamas laughing at his phone. What was he watching? As Gwaine got closer, he could have sworn...Oh no.

Without warning, the headphones were pulled from Cendred phone, the sound coming out loud and clear.

_You can laugh all you want, Elyan, Cendred is a fucking snack I would…_

‘What the hell is that?’ Gwaine reached to grab Cendreds phone with panic in his eyes, ‘Stop watching that! Give it here!’

‘No! I won’t’ Cendred stretched his hand away, Gwaine straining to reach, falling onto the sofa with the effort.

He grabbed Cendreds wrist, now straddling him as he tried to wrench the phone out of his grip only to find Cendred was strong that he looked.

‘Give it to me!’ Gwaine laughed in frustration, stretching higher and finally getting a good grip, ‘I’m deleting it!’

‘No, you're not!’ 

Cendred grabbed Gwaine’s wrists, trying to stop him from pressing delete. In the fumbling, Cendred managed to wrestle the phone out of his hand, and Gwaine under him, pinning him down by the wrists.

Suddenly they both stopped laughing.

Gwaine knew Cendred had been going to the gym a lot, but the man was able to pin him to the sofa with ease, as Gwaine pressed back he knew it was useless. Not that he wanted Cendred to stop. It felt too good. His muscular body bearing down on Gwaine’s, their faces inches apart, only thin material between their bodies.

Cendred couldn’t catch his breath. He looked down at Gwaine, who didn’t do anything to try and get out of his grasp. In fact, he arched his body up, just a little, but enough to push them intolerably close. Gwaine’s jaw went slack, the slick pink of his tongue just visible behind his lips.

With their bodies so close, Gwaine couldn’t hold back how good it felt to be this close to Cendred, a soft moan escaping his lips without warning as the man rocked his hips ever so slightly. He was hard, and so was Cendred. Christ, it was intoxicating. Cendred moved closer, his stubble brushing against Gwaines, his breath heavy and hot against his lip.

‘Oh fuck’

Cendred whispered, moving in closer still, ‘I know.’

‘No. Cendred. I’m gonna throw up.’ 

‘What?’

Gwaine wretched a little before Cendred let him go, the young man running to the bathroom.

Cendred sat there gaping like a fish as he tried to mute the noise of Gwaine chucking up all the gin and pizza from the night before. He grabbed a pillow and covered himself, his frustration at breaking point, ‘Oh come on.’ he whined to himself, before curling up on the sofa feeling sorry for himself.


	13. Peace Offering

A week had passed and Gwaine had found himself pinned under Cendred, and a week since they’d spoken. He’d hated every second. Tiptoeing around his own flat, Cendred sneaking out before he thought Gwaine was awake to avoid the awkward conversation; according to Percy, he’d been down at the gym till closing every single night. He swung his legs around in the salon chair, glancing through the window at his flat across the road. He’d shut up shop nearly three hours ago. It was early Sunday evening and the gym was closed by now, which meant Cendred was definitely in the flat.

Gwaine rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t avoid it forever. What had happened… _nearly_ happened was a mistake. Of course, it was. It crossed a line. He just needed to apologise. Cendred would understand, he… Oh, but he didn’t want to brush it all under the carpet. He wanted to walk into the flat, throw open the door of Cendred’s room, and not leave the bed until both of them were sleek with sweat and smoking on the balcony.

He glanced at his phone, trying to push the visceral image of Cendred wrapping his strong arms around him, only to find more of the same. He’d been updating his youtube channel relentlessly as a distraction, but the comments only mentioned one damn thing:

_Where is the hot guy, Gwaine?_

_Dude, love your vids, but I want more of you and your boyfriend! You’re too cute together!_

_Are they actually together?  
-I hope they are!  
\--SO do I!  
\---I want more Cendred!_

He clicked off his phone and sighed. It was time to face the music.

‘Cendred?’ Gwaine called timidly into the flat, locking the door behind him, ‘You in?’ he poked his head around the doors but found no one there. He grabbed a beer and set up his tripod on the coffee table in front of the sofa, taking a breath before he hit the live button on his Instagram, ‘Hi everyone. So, a bit of a weird video but here we go. There have been a lot of comments about my roommate Cendred and I. We are _not_ going out. He works with a good friend of mine and needed a place to stay so, he’s been crashing in my spare room for a while. Anyway, it’s...I would really appreciate it if the comments could stop now as it’s getting rather awkward. Anyway, that’s it, I’ll be back with another video on Wednesday this coming week! Bye guys.’

Gwaine leaned forward when he heard the front door go, not realising his finger slipped short of the screen as Cendred gingerly shuffled around the corner.

‘Hi.’ Cendred gave a small smile, holding up a crate of beer, ‘Peace offering? I was going to get gin but I thought…’

‘Yeah. Beers a better shout.’ he slid across the sofa, his phone screen now black apart from a tiny red light, ‘You can join me if you want?’

Cendred smiled with relief as he took a seat and a can out for each of them. They took a sip in silence.

‘I just want to…’

‘About the other…’

Cendred gave a shy laugh, ‘You first.’

Gwaine took a deep breath, pulling his legs up under him on the sofa,’About the other day. I’m sorry about whatever I said when I was drunk.’

‘It’s fine. It was flattering, to be honest...even if you were off your face.’ he noticed Gwaine start to soften, ‘I’m sorry too. I should have just let you delete the video.’

‘And urm…The urm...Sorry about the whole…’

‘It’s cool!’ Cendred cut in, ‘Won’t mention it again, it was just a mistake. We fell.’

‘Yeah, yeah we just fell...into that…’

‘...position…’

They both took a big glug of beer.

Gwaine rolled back his shoulders, trying to brush off the tension hanging between them, ‘How was work today?’

‘Oh, you know, the usual. Although… Oh christ, Morgana hired this teenager to help on weekends and he’s fucking useless. I keep asking him to order the vinyl by release dates and he does it alphabetically because he can't be arsed to check the sleeves and…’ Gwaine was laughing his head off, ‘OKay, I know it sounds stupid but I really do give a shit about how vinyl is organised.’

‘If it makes you feel better, Elyan shouted at me once because I moved his hair clip out of the cascading rainbow colour scheme he’d carefully arranged them into.’

‘When was that? Today?’

‘Three years ago but you mention it to him and he makes it sound like I killed his dog.’  
Cendred downed the last of his can through the giggles, ‘Elyan is soft as hell but you mess with his organisation systems and he turns into a fucking goblin.’

‘I’m going to tell him you said that.’

‘No, you bloody won’t! He calls me worse anyway.’

‘Oh yeah. Like what?’ Cendred leaned in with a smirk, ‘Does he say you’re short? Because, you are a bit small.’

Gwaine dropped his mouth open in mock outrage, ‘How very dare you. Also, you’re like the same height as me.’

‘How tall are you?’

‘Five-Eleven.’

Cendred leaned back with one arm behind his head in triumph, ‘Six-three mate, six-three.’

‘No, what, no.’ Gwaine downed his drink and got to his feet, ‘Stand up.’ Cendred did as he was told and Gwaine craned his head towards him confused, ‘How have I only just noticed you’re that tall?’

‘Well, we’ve never stood this closer together before.’

Gwaine swallowed, ‘True.’ Oh no. There it was again. That terrible urge to kiss Cendred, to pull his face down and move their bodies together, to stumble backwards and into the bedroom, ‘I...urm...I just need to…’

‘Yeah, go ahead.’ Cendred bashfully looked at his feet as Gwaine slid passed. 

Now alone, Cendred chugged his beer down and rubbed his eyes. Then he noticed it, the little red light on Gwaine’s phone. Reaching forward he tapped the screen to see his own face staring back at him, seemingly thousands of comments all flying into his vision all screaming the same message:

_Gwaine! You’re still live! We can see everything!_

‘Oh god, oh god no.’ Cendred fumbles with the buttons trying to turn it off, instead just putting on a goddamn heart filter, ‘Shit, how do I turn this off!’ he looked up to see Gwaine had come back in, ‘Mate, I don’t know how to…’

‘You see,’ Gwaine cut in, ‘I know this is a bad idea, but at the same time, I literally cannot stop thinking about it, so, fuck it.’ And suddenly Gwaine found himself pulling Cendred up from the sofa by the shirt collar and on to his lips. He wrapped his arms around Cendred’s neck, fingers grabbing a fistful of his blue-black hair. Cendred’s arms instantly found his waist and hooked under his shirt as he kissed back.

And then Gwaine found himself pushed away.

‘Shit.’ Gwaine had made the wrong decision, ‘Sorry I, I thought you...Oh fuck.’

‘No Gwaine I do, but you’re phone, it's…’

‘What? What about my phone? Jesus, Cendred, it’s fine if you don’t like me like that I, shouldn't have got carried away you don’t need to make up silly excuses to…’

Cendred’s eyes were wide, ‘I’m not making up an excuse it’s just…’

‘The other week when we, when we almost, I thought you...what the hell was that then if you didn’t…’

‘You’re live on fucking Instagram, Gwaine!’ Cendred shouted before letting out an exasperated sigh, ‘I saw the little recording light when you popped out and then you… I just thought you might rather we weren’t filmed.’

Gwaine stood there, slowly turning red with embarrassment, ‘Why didn’t you turn it off?’

‘I tried. I don’t have Instagram...I put on a heart filter instead.’

‘Right.’ Gwaine picked up the phone from the little tripod and, without turning the camera to face him, clicked off the back and removed the battery. Well, that was one way of stopping the feed, Cendred thought.

‘Gwaine I…’

‘I’m going to grab another one of those beers, no, I’m going to grab three and then I’m going to sit in my room and drink them until I fall asleep. Night, Cen.’

Gwaine scurried away to his room, beers in hand and a cigarette already hanging out of his mouth as he got to the window. What had he been thinking? He was never like that. Never impulsive, never spontaneous. Of course, Cendred didn’t like him that way. Why would he? No, Gwaine decided, I need to get a grip. 

Of course, little did Gwaine know Cendred sat on the balcony out back, pulling his hair out. With reluctance, he checked the group chat. The three dots kept coming up and vanishing as all their friends clearly didn’t know what to say after witnesses the whole damn thing online. After half an hour, Cendred’s messaging tone finally pinged with one solitary message which, he had to hand it to the guy, did sum the situation up:

Elyan: THE FUCK WAS THAT


	14. The Sweepstake

‘If _any_ of you, say _anything_ about that livestream, I will fire you on the spot.’ Gwaine didn’t lift his eyes to his colleagues as he walked through the door, ‘Just please don’t...What are you doing?’

Leon and Elyan briefly looked up from the money on the table.

‘Sweepstakes.’ said Percival, emerging from the back like the most natural thing in the world, ‘Honestly Gwaine, if you’d had just waited one more week I’d be fifty quid up!’

Leon smirked to himself, ‘You are all fools.’ swept the money from the table into his lap, ‘Oh yes. This’ll do nicely.’

Elyan slumped down in his salon chair, ‘It’s not fair! You had an advantage?’

‘Christ, well there had to be some advantages to living with Merlin and Arthur for so long. I can tell a mile off when something’s going to happen!’

‘Except!’ chimed in Percy, snatching a tenner from his hand, ‘ _I_ was the only one who said it would be Gwaine.’

Elyan let out a groan as he handed over yet more money.

‘Are you...are you lot betting on...For fucks sake, I hate you all.’

He shoved past Percy and put the kettle on with a slap of his hand, folding his arms over his chest with a huff.

‘Something on your mind, Gwaine? Trouble in paradise?’ Elyan teased.

‘Nothing happened. Of course nothing happened. I was just being an idiot.’

Leon watched as he retrieved the pack of cigarettes from his top pocket, tapping the end against the pack pensively, ‘What are you on about, Gwaine?’

‘I thought he liked me.’ he lit the cigarette in the middle of the shop, ‘I was wrong. No need to rub it in.’

‘Wait, Gwaine, what…’

‘I know, I know, I’ll take it outside.’ and with another shove past, Gwaine exited to smoke on the street.

The three of them stared through the glass at him utterly perplexed.

‘I’m calling Cendred.’ announced Percy, whipping the phone out of his pocket.

‘No you’re not. I’m going to go talk to him. Mind the till, will you Perce? I’ve dealt with this brand of idiot before, don’t forget.’ Leon walked out and patted Gwaine on the shoulder, ‘We need milk, back in a tick.’

Gwaine was too lost in his embarrassment to raise his eyes up from his feet and didn't notice Leon slip into the record store.

‘Sorry we’re not open for another...Leon?’ Cendred stood up from his box of new records, clutching a few against his chest, ‘W...What’s up?’

‘What’s up? What do you think is up, you _moron_? We saw the live video, didn’t hear from you, and now Gwaine is over there staring at his feet like a love sick school boy! He thinks you don’t like him; what happened?’

Cendred rolled his eyes in exasperation and fell into the nearest chair, ‘After he shit the video off he just, I dunno. He just grabbed some beers and left. I haven’t seen him since. He’s convinced I was trying to put him off but I was just trying to tell him we were being filmed, oh god, Leon. Help me. I feel pathetic.’

‘You both are. You’re both ridiculous.’ Leon walked behind the counter and grabbed Cendred’s keys, locking the front and flipping over the closed sign, ‘You’re going to take the day off, as am I, and we are going to sort this. I’ll cover you with Morgana, I’ll square it with Gwaine.’

‘H..how can we fix this?’

Leon cracked his knuckles, ‘Same way I fixed Merlin and Arthur up. And Lance and Gwen. And Morgana and _every single girlfriend she has ever had_. We are going old school, classic, with a twist of Gwaine. Now, do you have furniture polish?’


	15. Shut

It has been a _long_ day with Leon pulling a sickie, but sadly not long enough. He shut up shop as slowly as he could, waving goodbye to Elyan miserably. When you work with so many customers one on one, you learn how to fake a smile and come up with small talk, but the effort had exhausted him. Gwaine just wanted to collapse in front of the TV and watch reruns of Peaky Blinders, as he always did when he was down, but with Cendred in the flat even that wasn’t an option. And, when he rounded the corner and saw the ‘closed early’ sign hanging on the corner-shop door, realising he couldn’t even drown his sorrows in a giant tub of ice cream, he lost it. At least, at the very least, he’d booked the next week off and could grovel in privacy.

Gwaine marched up the steps to the flat, making the metal staircase rattle as he huffed, red face, to the front door. 

‘Fuck.’ he dropped his keys on his feet and felt a twinge go in his back from all the tension he was carrying. Finally, he kicked open the door and…

The flat was _spotless_. No dust, no clutter, clean carpets. The windows were sparkling, the wood polished, and damn the whole place smelled of lavender. He gently shut the door behind him, hearing a faint clatter. Turning around, he saw a brand new shirt hanging up where his coat should’ve been. It...It was the one he nearly brought the other day, but decided he didn’t have the money for. He slipped a finger under the collar and pulled out the tag.

_Gwaine’s_

Confused, Gwaine pulled off his t-shirt (stopping to fold it neatly in line with the rest of the flat), and put the shirt on. It fitted him perfectly. He took in his reflection in the hall mirror and, for the first time that day, let a small smile creep onto his face. He did look good in purple.

He stepped past the bedroom doors, into the kitchen, to see the balcony doors open. There was music playing softly in the evening sun. Cautiously, he stepped forward through the doors.

Cendred hadn’t heard him, and continued to hunch over his knees, chain smoking.

‘What’s all this then?’

Cendred jolted up with a start, brushing the ash off his freshly ironed shirt, ‘I...Um...I…Bollocks, once second.’

He reached into his pocket with an apologetic wince and retrieved a scrap of paper. Trying to catch his breath, he scanned over the words before, with all the awkward confidence he could muster, looked back up to Gwaine.

‘Cendred?’

 _Here goes nothing_ , Cendred through to himself.

‘Do you remember when we first met?’

‘Um...At the record store...I guess, I don’t really…’

‘It was the 12th of January, which was just under four months since I started working for Morgana. A...and we’d become friends and she kept asking me out for her mates but I kept telling her I liked someone and just needed some time to, you know, build up to asking them out. And then, one day, this guy who I’d seen every sodding morning from across the street but had no idea how to… well he walks in the store and blow me down, he’s one of Morgana’s best mates. And she, well, she spots it from a mile off. Tells me to get over myself and ask him out the next time he comes in. But every time he does all I can muster are sarcastic comments and he starts to clearly _not_ like me, but I don’t know to make it better and...Oh fuck.’ Cendred realised he hadn’t taken a single breath. He gulped down the rest of his beer and continued, not having seen the sheer shock on Gwaine’s face yet, ‘So then, Morgana had to go to London and suddenly sprang it on me that I should stay...stay… at your place. And then I went and…’

‘January 12th.’ 

‘Y...yeah.’

Gwaine met his gaze slowly, his eyes getting a little wet, ‘Cendred...It’s August.’

Cendred bit his lip, ‘I know. I’m not the best at…’

‘Shut up.’

‘What?’

‘Just shut up.’

And without a moment's hesitation Gwaine sprang forward and kissed Cendred., He held his face in both hands, Cendred moving in closer, starting to stand as he wrapped his arms around Gwaine’s waist. The two of them stumbled against the glass doors, back through the kitchen, knocking over the carefully tidied books and records. 

With a sturdy kick, Gwaine backed the pair through his bedroom door. And with a sturdier one, Cendred kicked it shut.


	16. I Need Answers

Elyan: Well, did it work????

Elyan: DID IT WORK???

Elyan: ???????

Leon: I don’t know!

Merlin: Oh come on

Merlin: It’s been a week, you must know something

Leon: I haven’t seen him; he had this week booked off ages ago

Elyan: Yeah, he hasn’t popped in or anything; has anyone heard from him?

Percy: He hasn’t popped to the gym at all

Arthur: Has anyone heard from Cendred? 

Elyan: Nope

Leon: Nada

Leon: He’s back tomorrow and I’m on shift with him, I’ll see if I can get any sense out of it

Elyan: I’m literally going to come in tomorrow to snoop

Elyan: I don’t care it’s my day off

Elyan: I NEED ANSWERS

Leon: My god you’re such a gossip

Elyan: says Mr ‘I’m going to pull a sickie to clean Gwaine’s entire flat, put a sodding playlist together, and write a goddamn declaration of love to help get my mate laid

Leon:...

Leon: touche

Leon:...

Leon:... You’re still a dickhead, Elyan

Elyan: :3


	17. Late for Work

Leon drummed his fingers on the desk. 7.15 am. Gwaine was normally here by 6.30 on a Monday. He peered out of the shop window towards Gwaine’s flat to see no lights were on. Maybe he’d slept through his alarm? Well, they were due to open at 9 and had a tonne of paperwork to get through, so Leon supposed he didn’t really have a choice but to go over there.

After climbing the stairs, he gave a light knock on the door.

Nothing.

He knocked again, ‘Gwaine, mate? You in there?’ he bit his fingernails in the silence, ‘It’s Leon, we need to open up soon?’

Maybe he really was fast asleep. If it had gone tits up with the plan, it was a very Gwaine move to spend a week absolutely wankered and hungover for the next decade. Leon knocked harder, preparing to shout, when the door clicked off the latch and gently opened.

Cautiously stepping in, Leon couldn’t hear anything, ‘Hello? You alright Gwaine?’

Leon scratched his head, beginning to get a little worried. Could Gwaine have been so upset he just took off? Leon took in the flat; it was messy again, incredibly messy, with clothes and old pizza boxes strewn everywhere. It looked like a bomb sight. 

He got out his phone and rang Elyan, ‘Dude, get to Gwaine’s. I can’t find him and I think something bad might have…’

And _then_ he heard Gwaine.

Leon shrivelled in on himself.

‘Fuck!’ 

Leon wanted the floor to swallow him up and die.

‘Cendred! Yes!’

He began creeping out of the flat.

‘Leon? You there?’ came the crackled voice on the end of the phone.

Leon pulled it to his face in a whisper, ‘False alarm, meet me at the…’

‘Oh god, Gwaine, harder!’

‘Meet me at the shop!’ Leon nearly shouted in embarrassment and pegged it down the stairs.

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Gwaine looked up from his knees, ‘D...did you hear that?’

‘Yeah...Must be outside.’

‘Yeah, probably...Now, where were we?’

Cendred pulled Gwaine back onto the bed, clambering on top with breath hot in his ear, ‘I think we were on round three.’ he smirked.

Half an hour later, Gwaine strolled into the salon trying to smooth down the knots in his hair he evidently didn’t have time to brush. He smiled at Leon and Elyan as he flicked on the kettle, ‘Thought it was your day off, El?’

Leon shot Elyan a glance, begging him not to laugh, ‘Yeah...Just thought I’d pop in for a bit. How was your week off. Good?’

Gwaine suppressed a smile, ‘Yeah, not bad at all thanks. Good to...have some time to myself.’

He took his coffee and went to sit down, only to shoot back up again.

‘Bit sore, are we?’ Leon smirked.

‘What I…’ Gwaine’s eyes went wide, ‘Wait. Wait a second.’

‘In my defense you were like an hour late and I was getting worried.’

Elyan was nearly falling off his chair in hysterics.

‘Please tell you didn’t hear…’

‘Oh yeah. Something along the lines of _Fuck, Cendred, Yes_ ’ Leon immitated the breathless rasp he’d heard from the bedroom.

‘Right, I need a cigarette.’

‘After sex that good, I’m not suprised.’ Leon laughed as Gwaine, red as a beetroot, slipped outside.


	18. Leon's Day Off

_One year later, October_

Leon didn’t like this. He’d been sat in that damn coffee shop for nearly an hour on his day off, and Gwaine still hadn’t materialised. With a huff, he downed the last of his cold latte and began to get up, only to see Gwaine finally run through the door.

‘Where the hell have you…’

‘Quickly does it.’ said Gwaine, grabbing him by the elbow urgently and pulling him out into the cold winter air. After a scurry down the road, Leon was shoved into an alleyway (the one the cafe kept its bins no less, as Gwaine peered around the corner.

‘Gwaine what is…’

‘Shhh!’ Gwaine waited until the little tinkle of the bell of the coffee shop door sounded before slumping against the wall in relief, ‘Sorry about that. I’ll explain.’ he paused, seeing the flies swarming over the bin opposite, ‘Not here. Let’s go to the park.’

It was a short walk to the public gardens, but Gwaine raced there anyway and Leon scurried after, wrapping his coat around himself. They finally settled on a park bench where Gwaine lit a much-needed cigarette, the smoke curling around his frozen breath, but still, he didn’t speak, just tapped his foot and looked at the floor.

Leon wrapped his scarf up over his nose to stop it going red, but more so to hide the beginnings of a scowl, ‘You know what I was going to do with my day off? I was going to sit in my pants with the heating on top whack, but instead, I’m freezing my bollocks off out here with you. So, what’s going on?’

Gwaine pushed his elbows on to his knees, looking up through his hair with a nervous but joyful smile, ‘You can’t tell anyone, okay?’

‘If you don’t tell me right now I’m going to throw you in that frozen lake and claim it was self-defence against you being a dick.’

He let out a laugh and retrieved a small bag from the inside pocket of his coat. With cautious fingers, Leon peered inside. A small velvet box concealed a black-gold ring, with ten delicate sapphires sparkling through the middle.

‘Wow.’

‘Yep.’

‘I mean...I’m flattered Gwaine, but I think you’re a bit of a munter.’

Gwaine let out a snorting laugh as he snatched the ring back, ‘You’re an arsehole. You’d be lucky to have me!’

‘I’d be exhausted and you’d be frustrated, is what we’d be.’ Leon let the sarcasm in his voice settle, ‘It’s very beautiful.’

‘Do you think he’ll like it? The guy who helped me design it did a good job but, like, is it too tacky with the crystals in it? Or is it too subtle?’

Leon put a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder, reminding him to take a breath with a stern look.

‘I’m very happy for you but that still doesn’t explain why you threw me into a bin earlier.’

‘I had to pick the ring up before I came here and I saw Cendred out with Morgana by the Jewelry store. So, I had to leg it round the back until they left. Problem was they sat outside of the restaurant opposite and eventually the guy came out for his fag break and sneaked me through the back door.’ Leon repressed a laugh, ‘The guy said it happens a lot.’

‘Okay, fair enough. But why do you need to talk to me?’ he straightened his back, ‘Have you come to ask for my blessing? Because I’ll need to know what your intentions are with my dear friend Cendred before I could even consider a love match.’

Gwaine smiled to himself, ‘I’ve got no idea how to pop the question. So… I wondered if you might be able to help me.’

Leon pursed his lips before the exasperation took over, ‘For the love of God, do I have to do everything for you gays? Gwaine, you know Cendred better than me, you know what he finds romantic, just...wing it. Failing that, just sit him down and be blunt about it. Maybe he’ll find it charmingly off the cuff.’

‘Just be blunt about it?’

‘Yes! Just say it and be done with it!’

‘So blunt like, ‘Hey, Leon, if Cen says yes will you be my best man?’’

Leon stared at Gwaine. His mouth dropped. Before he knew it he had to clap a hand over his face to stifle a wail, tears welling in his eyes.

Gwaine couldn’t believe there was no witty put-down, ‘So if that a…’

‘Yes! Yes, you twat, of course, it’s a yes!’ and Leon pulled a startled Gwaine into a bear hug.

‘Okay, calm down.’ Gwaine held his best friend by the shoulders, ‘But I hope you know you’ve set the bar now, because if Cendred doesn’t say yes _that_ enthusiastically, I’m going to be disappointed.’

Slightly embarrassed, Leon laughed as he wiped the tears from his eyes, ‘So, do you actually need my help with the proposal or was this just a ruse?’

‘Oh, complete ruse, I’ve had it planned for months... but I do need one little favour.’


	19. One Story Ends

‘But I’m tired.’ moaned Cendred as he got shuffled from the kitchen. He blew gently on his tea, his glasses fogging up for a second before he took a seat, ‘Maybe another time.’

‘Come on, it’ll be fun!’ pressed Leon, very aware he only had one hour to convince him and get him to the destination, ‘Besides, you’re already dressed and it’s only down the road.’

‘I’m not dressed.’ He raised his foot in the air, ‘The slippers are on.’

‘I really don’t get the whole sexual attraction thing but I can’t believe Gwaine is still with you since you brought those things. Pink is not your colour, honey.’

‘Jokes on you, Gwaine brought them for me.’ He took a sip of his tea, ‘What's the band’s name again?’

‘There’s like five bands on tonight, and the beer is cheap, and it’s a really good venue!’

Cendred stopped the cup just before it met his lips, eyeing Leon over the rim, ‘Since when have you liked metal music?’

 _Shit_. Leon bit into his tongue. He was going to have to do something drastic. He was going to have to improvise. 

‘It’s Elyan.’ Leon didn’t know where it was going, but he knew it wasn’t going to be good, ‘He...he fucked Percy.’ well, that came out of nowhere, ‘A...And Percival didn’t call back. And he’s inconsolable. I...I didn’t want to come right out and say it but...urm...he could really do with his friends and night out, so, you know…’

‘Leon, you should have just said, of course!’ Cendred began pulling his boots on with haste as Leon ordered the taxi, ‘I can’t believe Percy would do that, though. He’s so nice! I...I’m having words with him.’

Leon nodded slowly, imagining how the bodybuilder was going to beat him to a pulp for this.

After a short ride, Leon and Cendred got out a few strides down from the local green.

‘Why are we here, where’s the venue?’

‘It’s just a short walk through, come on.’ 

‘But…’ Cendred stopped and dug his hands into his pockets, ‘Me and Gwaine come here every weekend; it goes on for miles.’

‘There’s a cut through.’

‘No there isn't…’

‘Just!’ Leon calmed himself from shouting, but he was getting sick of this shit, ‘Just trust me.’

Cendred followed with a sceptical look in his eye. They wound along the path of the little stream, through the damp winter grass as the last few cherry red leave filtered down from above. As they turned the corner, Cendred stopped in his tracks. Leon patted him on the back and slipped away.

In front of him, Gwaine was sat on the bench. It was _their_ bench. The one secluded and sheltered by trees, except now it was different. Twinkling blue lights had been threaded through the branches and vines of flowers crept up the arms rests. Gwaine got to his feet, a little shaky.

‘Hey.’

‘Gwaine, what is this?’ Cendred tried to take it all in.

‘I...um...I…’ he let out a defeated sigh, taking out a tiny note from his pocket and scanning over the words. Cendred’s mind shot back to that first time last August, how he’d scrawled out all the words to make sure he didn’t get them wrong.

Without hesitation, Cendred moved forward and took the note into his hands.

‘No, I’m meant to say it, you’re not meant to just…’

‘This is your nervous writing,’ Cedred smiled down at the paper, ‘You go all scruffy when you’re nervous. It’s how you write those notes on the fridge when you’ve _accidentally_ drank the last beer.’ he handed it back, his breath catching just a little, ‘Go on. Say it. I can’t read those scribbles anyway.’

Gwaine just stared at him lovingly.

‘Come on, or I’m going to start crying and I’m fucking ugly when I cry Gwaine you know this.’

Gwaine got down on one knee and opened the little velvet box.

‘Sod the speech. I love you Cen; you’re the worst roommate I’ve ever had and you’re also the best thing that ever happened to me. So, you fancy making an honest man out of me?’

Cendred teared up, and the tears swerved around the curves of his beaming smile, ‘Yes.’

There was a sudden cheer from the trees and out came the whole gang. Gwaine laughed into a kiss with Cendred.

‘And you’ll be pleased to know, ‘Leon began with a smirk, ‘that the whole thing was captured on camera to be replayed at your own embarrassment.’

Percival waved from behind the camcorder, ‘I’ve been hiding in that bush for a good half hour so you best bloody rewatch it!’

‘I...Oh my god, Leon.’ Cendred burst out laughing, ‘So wait, what you said earlier...did you just have to make that up on the spot?’

‘I had to get you out of the house somehow or you’d miss your own proposal!’ Leon turned a knowing look to Gwaine, ‘He was in his slippers.’

‘How the hell did you get Cen out the flat if he was in his slippers? He’s cancelled dates before because he’s in those things!’ Gwaine laughed, slipping his arm around Cendred’s waist.

‘I’m really sorry.’ Leon turned to Elyan and Percy, ‘I honestly couldn’t think of anything else but I...I said…’ he started giggling before he could get the words out, ‘I said you were sleeping together and Percy never called you back, I’m so sorry!’

Elyan let out a nervous laugh, ‘What? What a funny story!’

‘Yeah, what the hell Leon! Ha.’ Percy darted his eyes over the Elyan.

Gwaine swung his head back ‘You two? That’s hilarious, I can’t believe you bought that Cen, you’re so gullible!’ 

‘Hey! I was looking out for my mates!’

As the rest of the group turned back to the happy couple, Percival got out his phone and began to type.

_Percy: Did you say something to Leon?_

_Elyan: No, not to anyone_

_Elyan: I wasn’t sure you’d want anyone to know yet :’)_

_Percy: Coz it’s fine if you did_

_Percy: Coz I’m really happy about it_

_Percy: Just was waiting for the right time to ask you, you know, officially :’)_

_Elyan: Wait...official as in..?????_

_Percy: As in do you want to be my boyfriend and stop sneaking around?_

_Elyan: On one condition..._

_Percy: ??_

_Elyan: You do that thing you did last night again ;)_

_Percy: You’re an absolute tease_

_Percy: Mine or yours, sexy ;)_

Elyan looked up to see Percy smiling down at him. And then looked over, to see everyone staring at them. 

Leon folded his arms, 'You're on the group chat, you fucking morons.'


End file.
